Risk of Degenerative Disk Disease?

Training Injuries
1

One thing that I keep hearing from people with respect to the dangers of powerlifting is that lifters are more prone to developing degenerative disks, with the spine compressing, pinching nerves, causing debilitating back pain etc.

I wonder:

  1. What is the general risk in your opinion?

  2. What are teh standard measures to reduce that risk? Would some combination of mobility work, stretching, keeping muscular balance and foam rolling be sufficient to entirely prevent this from happening in old age?

Thanks

2

Good questions TheBlade. Here is my take on it:

  1. The general risk is all about perception IMO. Is the general risk for a powerlifter higher than a soccer player? Yes. Is the general risk higher for a powerlifter than a wrestler or football player? Might be equal depending on styles of play, etc. There is always a risk to reward to activities being performed.

  2. I would say that a combination of proper mobility work, stretching, muscular balance and foam rolling/soft tissue work would help decrease stresses and loads on the spine. In addition to that, I’d say corrective exercise and lumbar stability would play key roles as well. The issues with degenerative discs from powerlifters are not only from the spinal compression (which is a big factor), but also due to shearing forces placed on the lumbar spine during the squat/deadlift, which only gets worse if there is not proper mobility and lumbar stability. To counteract the high levels of spinal compression, it is vital for powerlifters to take deload weeks and rotate in variations of squats (different bars, belt squats, single leg work).

I personally also believe in spinal traction and decompression therapy. I have no evidence of this helping powerlifters, but I could see a great benefit of receiving the treatment though assisting in negating some of the effects of the chronic spinal compression that occurs during powerlifting.

3

Thank you for your response

Can you explain in more detail what you mean by corrective exercise and lumbar stability? Beyond deload weeks and variations of squats, how else would one work to maintain/better lumbar stability/mobility? And what sorts of corrective exercise?

4

Corrective exercise would be determined by what faulty movement patterns, mobility deficits, and weakness/imbalances that you have present. I can’t really get more specific than that due to the fact that each person is different, so I would recommend finding a local practitioner/coach who specializes in function movement assessments and can do a full assessment on you and provide detailed instructions on what needs improvement, etc. Z-health practitioners are great, along with people who are certified in FMS and similar screening processes.

In terms of lumbar stability, pretty much any exercise that trains core stability (palloff press, chops, etc) would be great. Search around this site, read some articles and you will be set. To point you in a good direction, search for Eric Cressey’s “Back Savers”/“Bulletproof that back” articles.